Mary Beth Decker

Research Scientist in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Lecturer in School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Yale University

PhD, University of California, Irvine (1995) BS, Rutgers University (1987)

Dr Mary Beth Decker is a biological oceanographer whose research examines how oceanographic processes and conditions affect the distribution, abundance and behaviour of marine predators and their prey and how these processes affect trophic structure of coastal ecosystems. In particular, she studies environmental drivers of jellyfish blooms and the impacts of jellyfish population variability on marine food webs. She uses multi-scale, interdisciplinary approaches to investigate these processes, by employing shipboard surveys, laboratory experiments, modelling, and retrospective examinations of long-term data sets. Dr Decker teaches Biological Oceanography, Caribbean Coastal Development, and Coastal Environments in a Changing World.